


Fungus in the Basement

by radioqueen



Category: The Bright Sessions (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brother/Sister Incest, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, F/M, Gaslighting, Incest, Period Sex, Rape while victim is wearing a tampon, The Sam and Damien Are Long Lost Siblings Conspiracy Theory, Unsafe Sex, dislocation, forced aftercare, unwanted arousal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-06-07 11:52:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15218567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radioqueen/pseuds/radioqueen
Summary: When her plan to make Damien leave town goes terribly awry, Sam wishes she and her biological brother were half as well-adjusted as the siblings in "Flowers in the Attic."





	Fungus in the Basement

**Author's Note:**

  * For [plutonianshores](https://archiveofourown.org/users/plutonianshores/gifts).



> A huge shoutout to my betas, El and Hazal!

Sam’s hands were so sweaty that the manila envelope had dark splotches all over it. She wiped her hands on her coat and knocked on the door.

“WHAT?!” Damien shouted from inside his apartment.

“It’s—” Sam had forgotten to breathe before answering, so she had to pause to inhale. “It’s Sam. Samantha Barnes.”

There was silence inside.

“What do you want?” Damien finally asked. His voice sounded close to the door—maybe just on the other side.

“I have money,” Sam said breathlessly. It wasn’t what she’d planned to say. “For you, I mean. And other things. It’s a gift. Well, sort of. But money, I definitely have money, and I’m giving it to you. If you want it. Can I—can I come in?”

Damien was silent for so long Sam thought he must have gone away. But then the door opened, and Damien stood there with his hair tousled and his eyes bleary.

“Do you have any idea how early it is?” he asked.

“Almost noon?” Sam offered. “Did I wake you?”

“Yeah, I sleep in my fucking jeans,” Damien yawned.

“Oh.” Sam couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not. “I’m… sorry…?”

“What do you want?” Damien asked again.

“Can I come in? Please?” Sam felt nervous and out of place standing in the fancy apartment hallway. Even though she knew she would still feel that way inside his apartment, her goal was to get inside it, so her mind insisted she would feel better once she accomplished that.

Damien stared at her for a minute, then stepped back to let her in. Sam stepped inside, and her tense muscles did relax marginally, despite the ten degree drop in temperature.

“Wow,” she said. “This is really nice.” _Messy,_ she thought, _but definitely expensive._

Damien shut the door. “Why are you here?”

“I’m here—” Sam’s voice squeaked. She paused to clear her throat and collect herself. “I’m here to ask you, on behalf of Mark and, actually, everyone else, to… um, well. To leave. Please.”

Damien blinked. “What?”

She handed him the envelope full of documents and cash. “I got you everything you need to start a new life somewhere else. Identification, money, even a house. You’ll be safe from Wadsworth. Mark wants—we all think you should go.”

“So what you’re saying is, you have a message from Mark,” Damien said slowly. “And the message is, ‘Go away’? Like… ‘Leave now, and never come back’?”

“Uh, yeah, yup, that about sums it up,” Sam said. “Basically.”

“Huh.” Damien stood still for a moment. “I see. Well, in that case, I’ve got a message for you to take back to Mark.”

Sam tried not to show her relief that he wasn’t freaking out the way Mark had said he would. “Sure, I’ll give him a message for you. What is it?”

Damien gestured for her to come closer. Sam stepped forward until her ear was close to Damien’s mouth. He brushed his lips against her ear.

 _“Fuck you,”_ he said.

Before Sam could react, Damien grabbed her by the throat and shoved her into the wall. The blow dazed her, and when she recovered, she realized he was forcing her jeans—and with them, her underwear—down her legs. She elbowed him in the ribs and tried to duck out of his reach, but his hand tangled in her hair. He tried to rip her unbuttoned raincoat off, but her layers under it were so thick he only managed to get it trapped around her arms. Sam screamed in pain, feeling her left shoulder dislocate. She tried to kick him, but the jeans around her knees might as well have been ropes.

“Just when I think you can’t be any more of a cunt,” Damien fumed. “God, I fucking hate you!”

He dragged her into his bedroom by her hair.

“Ow, stop, Damien!”

Damien ignored her and yanked her coat the rest of the way off.

“Ow ow ow! My shoulder, ow!”

Sam wobbled, blinded by the pain, and he pushed her face-first onto his unmade bed. It stank of sweat and cheap whiskey and dirty laundry. Damien snatched her left shoe off and then pulled her jeans over her socked foot. He flipped her over, accidentally returning her shoulder to its socket in the process while she screamed. He covered her mouth and then forced her legs apart and dropped his hips between them, effectively preventing her from closing her knees.

“I don’t believe for one second Mark sent you,” Damien said. “But if he did… fuck him. And _especially_ fuck you. Which—that’s exactly what I plan on doing.”

He unzipped his own jeans and released his cock. As he tried to find the right hole, Sam managed to kick him in the hip. Damien slapped her face in retaliation.

“You’re gonna regret doing that.” He tensed, preparing to enter her.

“Wait, wait, wait! There’s something you need to know first, seriously!”

Maybe it was the panic in Sam’s voice that convinced him. Whatever the case, Damien paused, his half-erection brushing Sam’s skin.

“What?” he asked.

“We’re… You and I…” Sam swallowed. “I’m your sister.”

Damien froze in surprise for four racing heartbeats. Then he threw his head back and laughed.

“Okay, wow, I was expecting some wild excuses, but that’s definitely a new one. My sister, huh?” Damien narrowed his eyes. “I don’t have a sister. Never have, never will.”

“I’m your biological sister,” Sam said quietly. “You were born to my parents—our parents—when they were sophomores in high school. They gave you up for adoption and had the records sealed. They got married two years later—well, more accurately, they got pregnant with me near the end of senior year and got married that summer—and the rest is history.”

“No, that’s not true.” Damien scowled. “My parents had me the normal way. I look like them.”

“Do you, though?” Sam asked. “Sorry, I’m not trying to question your experience, just—your parents had really different features than you, didn’t they? I’ve seen pictures. And neither of them had hair as dark as yours.”

Damien pondered this. “No, I look more like them than like you.”

“Think about it, Damien,” Sam persisted. “We’re both short. We both have the same hair color, eye color, ear shape, nose shape, general body type. We’re both in love with Mark—”

“In—in love?” Damien asked in alarm. “I’m not—”

“Don’t pretend,” Sam said. “I know you fell hard for him. It takes one to know one.”

Damien was silent for a long time. Then, he cleared his throat and said, “How do you know all this? The adoption stuff, I mean.”

“I realized when I was putting together documents for you,” Sam said. “I changed your name, by the way. Legally. In the sense that it will hold up for anyone who runs your identification, anyway. Not so much in the following-the-law sense of the word.”

“What did you change my name to?” Damien asked.

“Damien. Obviously. I got rid of Robert altogether. And I gave you our biological mother’s maiden name for your last name.”

Damien’s face softened. “Why?”

“Because I want you to leave,” Sam said. “It’s not safe for you here. Wadsworth—”

“I can handle Wadsworth.”

“No, you can’t! You couldn’t before, and you still can’t! She’s way more powerful than you.”

“I’ll take my chances. She doesn’t scare me.”

“Then leave because Mark wants you to!” Sam said desperately.

“No. Nuh-uh. If Mark wants me to go, he can tell me himself.”

“Then at least please let me go,” Sam begged. “You’re right, Mark didn’t send me. He was going to come himself, but I snuck out while he was sleeping and came so he wouldn’t have to. I was trying to protect him, to take care of him. Please have mercy on me and just let me go. I promise I won’t tell Mark what happened if you let me go now.”

“Nah,” Damien said after a few seconds of contemplation. “Either you’re lying to me, in which case you deserve to be taught a lesson, or else you’re telling the truth, in which case I find out I was abandoned by another set of parents, and this time I can’t reconnect with them because _you killed them_ , in which case you also deserve to be taught a lesson. So no, I’m not gonna let you go. At least, not without the whole teaching-you-a-lesson thing.”

Without warning, he plunged into Sam. She was dry, and worse, she had forgotten she was wearing a tampon. The pain would have sent her off the bed if Damien hadn’t been holding her down.

“Ow!” Sam shrieked. “Damien—”

“Stop fighting me,” he said. “You know you deserve this.”

Sam stopped struggling. Deep down, she knew he was right. She wanted him to punish her for what she’d done.

“It really hurts,” she said. “Can I at least—”

“It’s supposed to hurt. Stop whining.”

Sam fell silent and endured her punishment without further complaint. Damien's grunts sickened her, but somehow knowing he was punishing her for killing her parents— their parents— made her more relaxed, more lubricated, and she decided not to question it. Having to fuck her brother, especially when her brother was Damien, was punishment enough. Thank god he probably wasn’t big enough to do serious damage with the tampon. At least, she hoped he wasn’t. It no longer hurt so badly it felt like he was doing damage, in any case, although the pressure inside her was still unbearable.

“Look at me,” Damien suddenly demanded. “Hey! I said look at me!”

It was almost impossible for Sam to look Damien in the eye while he was raping her, but she somehow forced herself to do it. She stared into his eyes; they were the same color as her own.

“Fuck.” Damien forced her head to the side. “Okay, stop looking at me. It’s freaking me out.”

She stared blankly at his nightstand, at the almost-empty bottle of bourbon and the wadded-up tissues. Gross. He rested his hand on her throat, not quite choking her. It was more like he was holding her down like a wolf pins down another. Sam swallowed, her throat pulsing under his hand.

“Some punishment,” he said. “You’re totally getting wet from this.”

“I’m sorry.” Sam’s voice made her throat vibrate against his hand.

“Eh. Oh well. Have you and Mark had sex yet?”

Sam nodded. Damien gave a low growl of pleasure. Sam wondered if he was fantasizing about Mark. Maybe he was just excited to have his cock in the same hole as Mark, even if the two incidents were hours apart.

“I know you didn't exactly get out much until recently. Was Mark your first?”

“My only,” Sam said.

“Good. When was the last time you two fucked?”

“This morning,” Sam whispered. Right before they’d argued about Mark's drinking and Sam's anxiety, and then about Sam being the one to deliver the news and documents to Damien. She wished she’d listened to Mark.

“Fuck,” Damien said. “Fuck, that's hot. Did he use a condom, or…?”

“I take birth control,” Sam said.

“So you let him nut inside you?”

Sam didn’t like where this was going. “Yes, but—”

“Just like I’m going to.”

“I’d really prefer if you didn’t,” Sam said.

“Yeah, well, I would prefer if you didn’t come to my house and fuck up my Sunday. We don’t always get what we want.”

“It’s Saturday.”

“Is it?” Damien froze, just for a moment, and then went back to raping her. “Huh.”

Sam dug her fingers under his hand, gently prying it off her throat. Damien swatted her hand away and tightened his grip, much to Sam’s chagrin.

“Stop fighting me,” he said again. “You deserve way worse than this, and you know it.”

Sam coughed, averting her gaze to his chest. “Are you going to kill me?” she asked hoarsely.

“No. Not my style. I’m just going to send you home to Mark filled to the brim with my jizz.”

Sam whimpered, clenching around him.

“Yeah, don’t pretend like that doesn’t turn you on,” Damien said. “I felt that.”

“I’m scared, that’s all.”

“Bullshit.” He grabbed her face and forced her to look at him again. As he stared into her eyes, he sank as deeply inside her as he could.

Sam’s gaze fell to Damien’s navy hoodie again. She realized she and Damien were both wearing nearly the same thing, although Damien’s jeans were a lot baggier than hers, and she was wearing a blue plaid flannel shirt instead of a hoodie. Damien was oblivious to their matching clothes.

“Look at me,” Damien said, this time more quietly. “Don’t stop looking at me until I say so.”

Sam reluctantly obeyed. Damien stared at her for a long time without speaking. She could feel him twitching obscenely inside her, as plainly as she could feel and smell his hot bourbon breath on her face.

“Fuck,” he finally said. “I think we really are related. _Fuck_.”

Sam shivered like she was freezing, but Damien just kissed her forehead. Then he fell on top of her, kissing her neck and ear and cheek.

“I seriously just fucked my sister,” Damien muttered. “If I wasn’t going to hell before…”

“Please let me go.” Sam heard her phone vibrating in her coat pocket on the floor. “Damien, that’s probably Mark. He’s going to be freaking out and coming over here any minute now. Just let me go and I won’t tell him—”

“Did you drive here?” Damien interrupted.

“No…” Sam blinked in confusion. “I... I took the bus. Why?”

“Get up,” Damien said.

“Why? What are you going to do to me?”

“Drive you home,” Damien said, looking mildly offended. “What did you think I was going to do to you?”

“Can I use the bathroom first?”

“This isn’t second grade. You don’t have to ask.”

“You’re kind of pinning me to the bed,” she reminded him.

“Oh. Heh. I guess I am.” He rolled off her, collapsing onto the mattress with a contented sigh. “Don’t leave, okay? I’ll get you home safe.”

For reasons Sam didn’t fully understand, she didn’t walk out the front door. She locked herself in the bathroom, stepping over the piles of dirty underwear and T-shirts and putting the seat down. It was a nice apartment, but Damien clearly didn’t care much for cleaning.

Sam washed her hands with water, since Damien’s soap bottle was empty, and then she tried to fish the tampon out of her body. The string had disappeared inside her, and for a terrifying minute, she was certain she would never find the tampon and she’d develop toxic shock syndrome and have to have both her legs amputated, because she was pretty sure she’d read an article about a girl that had happened to. But then her fingers found the string, and she sighed in relief as she pulled it out.

“What’s taking so long?” Damien pounded on the door. “Come on! I’m hungry! Let’s go!”

“Just a second!”

Sam washed her hands and face, drying them on her shirt when she couldn’t find a clean towel. She splashed water between her legs to clean herself as best she could before awkwardly pulling her jeans back up.

“About time.” Damien was leaning on the door jamb when she opened the door. “Come on. Let’s get some lunch.”

~

Like the apartment, Damien’s car was flashy and expensive but filled with trash.

 _Fitting_ , Sam thought.

He cleared the passenger seat for her and then shut her door for her once she was in. Then he hopped into the driver’s seat and started the car.

“What do you want to eat?” Damien asked.

“Nothing. Damien, I need to go to the doctor.”

“Why?”

“Because you dislocated my shoulder.” Sam took a deep breath. “And… and because I had a tampon in when you… when you…”

“Wait, seriously? Is that possible?”

“Apparently! It’s painful, but clearly not impossible.”

“I wondered why it felt weird. Why didn't you say anything?”

“Would you have stopped if I had?”

“Uh, yeah. I would have let you take the…you know… the thing out. Or blow me instead.”

Sam didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Hey.” Damien held his hand open on the center console dividing them. “Relax, okay? I’ll take care of you.”

“Then take care of me by taking me home! Damien, I hurt, and I need a shower, and—”

“Stop.” He tapped the back of his hand insistently on the console. “Hold my hand.”

Sam didn’t want to, but she was afraid to anger him. She winced as she moved her left shoulder. She rested her left hand on his, and he squeezed it.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you, okay?” He massaged the back of her hand with his thumb. “I was just playing with you, and I got carried away. That’s what big brothers do, right? Pick on their little sisters?”

“‘Picking on’ does not usually translate into ‘raping’.”

“Oh, come on! I didn’t—” Damien rolled his eyes. “You have superpowers and I don’t. You could have time-traveled to get away from me if you really wanted to. I was counting on it, in fact. You never said no. And you seemed pretty into it once you stopped being uptight.”

Sam racked her memories, and to her horror, she couldn’t remember if she had actually said no. The closest she’d come was “wait”—and he had. She didn’t think she had actually told him “no, stop” after that.

“But you said you were punishing me.”

“When did I say that?”

“When you said the thing about me killing our parents!”

“That’s not what I said,” Damien replied. “I said you were having sex with me to punish yourself. Some kind of self-harm.”

Sam understood now what Mark had meant about Damien’s gaslighting. She didn’t fully believe what Damien was saying, but it was enough to make her doubt her already hazy memories. She knew for sure that she hadn’t wanted it, but she was much less sure that she had ever told him that.

“Honestly, Sam,” Damien said. “I would have stopped if you’d said ‘no’ or ‘stop’. And you could have teleported at any point to get away from me. I didn’t force you to do anything.”

“Well.” Sam rubbed her forehead. “Either way, it hurt. A lot. And even if it wasn’t rape, siblings don’t normally have sex of any kind.”

“Ah, got me there. I guess I’m new to this whole sibling thing. But hey, I’ll make up for it, I promise. I’m gonna take care of you like a good big brother.”

Sam didn’t believe him, but even so, his words filled a hole in her gut she hadn’t realized was there. She hadn’t realized how envious she was of Mark and Joan’s relationship until just then. She found her hand relaxing in his.

“What kind of music do you listen to?” Damien asked as they approached a red light.

“I don’t know,” Sam said. “Calm music?”

He unlocked his phone and handed it to her. “Find something you like.”

She scrolled through his music and found a few bands they had in common. Damien moved his hand to the back of her neck and massaged it. Sam stiffened.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Being… nice?” he said, as if he weren’t quite sure he was doing it right.

“Why?”

“Does a guy need a reason to be nice to his… sister?” He hesitated on the last word, testing it out like a foreign language.

“No offense, but ‘nice’ isn’t a word I’ve ever associated with you.”

He snorted. “That’s fair. But hey, I feel bad that I hurt you. Even if you really should have said something. I’m not a mind reader.”

“I know,” Sam said quietly.

“So tell me where you want to eat.”

“I'm not hungry,” Sam repeated. “Please just take me home so I can go to the doctor.”

Damien ignored her and kept driving. He eventually pulled into a parking lot and all but drifted into a spot.

“Where are we?” Sam asked warily.

“My favorite noodle place in the city.” Damien pushed the button to unbuckle her. “Come on.”

Defeated, Sam followed him inside. Damien led her to a booth and scooted in next to her. The lack of personal space made Sam feel like she couldn’t breathe.

“How do you like your ramen?” Damien asked.

Sam shrugged.

“Okay, I’ll get you what I normally get. What kind of bubble tea do you want?”

“I've actually never had it before.”

“Wow. Okay. I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”

While Damien was gone, Sam checked her phone. She had three missed calls and a dozen increasingly frantic texts, all from Mark. “CALL ME ASAP,” read the last one. She didn’t trust herself to speak, so she texted him instead.

“Can’t talk right now. Had to fix some paperwork stuff. Forgot to leave a note. Sorry! I’m okay.” Her thumb stretched for the send key, but then she paused. “Bad Wolf,” she added, hoping the use of their safeword would assure him she wasn’t being forced to say she was okay.

“You scared the shit out of me,” Mark texted back. “I thought you went to see Damien on your own. Call me when you can.”

“Will do.” Sam spotted Damien returning with two drinks. “Gotta go.”

She returned her phone to her pocket before Damien slid back into the booth. He set two sealed plastic drinks in front of them and poked large straws into each.

“Drink.” Damien slid one cup in front of Sam.

She sipped it. It was sweet and milky, with chewy black beads throughout it. She wasn’t sure if she liked it or not, but the firm texture of the beads was soothing to chew.

“I figured you’d like the green tea, since that’s my favorite,” Damien said. “Same genetics.”

Sam didn’t respond. Damien rubbed her neck again, causing her to go rigid again.

“Relax,” he said into her ear. “I’m trying to be nice.”

She didn’t want him touching her right now. How was he so oblivious to basic human interaction? But he kept massaging her tense neck, and she soon found herself relaxing despite herself.

A waitress brought two bowls of ramen to them and disappeared. Sam peered into the bowl, surprised by the fried egg and caramelized onions and mushrooms garnishing the noodles. She had only ever had the microwaved cup-of-noodle type.

“Eat.” Damien slid Sam chopsticks. “Come on, you’ve gotta be hungry after that.”

Sam took a deep breath, summoning her courage. “I’m sorry, I don’t much feel like eating lunch _with my rapist_.”

“You’re still mad about that?” Damien asked in surprise. “I thought we agreed it wasn’t rape.”

“Well, it was definitely something, and I’m not going to forgive you just because you bought me some noodles.”

“Nah, that’s not the reason,” Damien said. “And actually, I’m gonna need you to pay. I’m not exactly making bank, what with my lack of ability.”

Sam sighed. “I just gave you money.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t bring it with me,” Damien said. “Besides, I’m going to need more than that, I’m pretty sure. Maybe a monthly allowance of some kind.”

Sam stared at Damien incredulously as he slurped some noodles out of his bowl.

“That won’t be a problem, will it?” Damien asked with his mouth full. “As I understand it, _our parents_ left you the entire fortune, right? If what you say is true, I’m entitled to half.”

Entitled? That was for sure, though not the way Damien used the word. Sam pushed her bowl away.

“If I give you a monthly allowance, will you go?” she asked.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I always wanted a little sister,” Damien said. “Good luck getting rid of me.”

“So you’re just going to stay here and stalk me?” Sam asked. “The way you stalked Joan and Chloe?” Or worse—Sam’s anxiety kicked into high gear. What if he planned on kidnapping her the way he’d done with Mark?

“I prefer the term ‘keeping in touch,’” Damien said. “Why? Are you afraid I’ll tell Mark about us? Don’t worry about that. Five thousand a month of _our_ parents’ money, and in exchange, I won’t tell Mark.”

Damien slurped a huge clump of noodles into his mouth. Sam hugged herself and hunched over the table, fighting the despair rising in her stomach.

“I’m going to tell Mark anyway,” she said.

“Which part?” Damien asked. “That I’m your brother, or that I was balls-deep inside you a few minutes ago?”

“All of it,” Sam said. “What you did to me. Our connection.”

Damien grinned. “Ahh, so you admit we do have a connection!”

“You know what I mean.”

“Oh yeah.” He winked at her. “I think I do.”

“Please just take me home,” Sam begged. “Or drop me off at the doctor and go.”

“I’ll take you wherever you want, once you eat your noodles,” he said. “ _Sis_.”

Sam picked up her chopsticks and started eating the mushrooms on top of her ramen mechanically. It was really good, but she didn’t want to admit that to Damien. His sneaker caressed her calf under the table.

“We’re family,” he said. “The only family either of us has left. You _could_ write me off, disown me, whatever. But I don’t think you will. You’re gonna try to make it work.”

“You’re awfully confident about that,” Sam said.

“Because I know what it’s like not to have anyone,” Damien said.

“I have someone,” Sam said. “Multiple someones. Mark, Joan, Chloe, Caleb, Adam—”

“It’s not the same and you know it,” Damien said. “We’re blood. So you’re gonna forgive me, and you’re gonna give me enough of our parents’ inheritance to live comfortably, and we’re gonna be family. We’re gonna be like Joan and Mark.”

“I really don’t think we can be like Joan and Mark,” Sam said. “Not after what you just did to me.”

“Then we’ll have something better.” Damien shrugged. “Long lost siblings who reunited as adults and accidentally had sex. It happens all the time.”

“‘Accidentally’,” Sam repeated. “Damien—”

He grabbed her by the hair, tightening his grip until she gasped.

“Don’t you want to be family?” he asked. “Haven’t you ever laid in bed and wished someone would magically appear and tell you they’re your missing family member?”

“Yes,” Sam admitted, only partly because she was afraid.

“Me too.”

“But Damien—”

“I always wanted a little sister to pick on and take care of,” Damien said.

“You can’t even take care of yourself,” Sam said. “And you really hurt me earlier.”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“It doesn’t matter. You still really, really hurt me. I hurt so much I can barely think about food. Can’t you even say you’re sorry?”

Damien thought about it. “Fine. I’m sorry for accidentally hurting you. Even though it wasn’t my fault because you didn’t say it was hurting you.”

Sam sighed. He really was unbelievable.

“I won’t let anyone else hurt you, though,” Damien said. “Isn’t that how this works? You’re mine, and no one gets to hurt you except me. I’ll protect you like a good big brother.”

That should have frozen Sam to the core. It definitely shouldn’t have made her feel as warm as it did. As if reading her mind, Damien kissed her deeply.

“We’re in public,” she protested, but only once he stopped.

“Relax. They don’t know we’re related,” he said.

“But we do!”

“Shh.” Damien kissed her again. “We’re both fucked up people. No point fighting it.”

When Sam stopped struggling, Damien released her and focused on his food again.

“Here’s how it’s gonna work.” He stirred his ramen with his chopsticks. “You’re gonna give me a debit card linked to my half of the family fortune. You’re gonna tell Mark you changed your mind and don’t want me gone. And then you’re gonna come over once a week for family dinner.”

“And what if I say no?” Sam asked. “Are you going to hurt me?”

“You’re not gonna say no,” Damien said smugly. “You want it as much as I do. I may not be able to influence you anymore, but I can still feel your wants. But… yeah, if you need a little persuading to feel loved, I could always twist your arm a little. Maybe stick your head in the toilet, if that’s what you really want.” He took a sip of his bubble tea. “ _Is_ that what you really want?”

Sam shook her head.

“Great!” Damien planted a cold kiss on her cheek. “Knew you’d be a good sport, little sis. Eat your food so I can get you home.”

Sam stared into her deep bowl of noodles and, as she picked away at the mushrooms on top, tried to figure out what the hell she would tell Mark.


End file.
